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Thursday, March 31, 2011

Lost At Sea: 5 Stories of Disappearing Ships | BoaterExam.com

Lost At Sea: 5 Stories of Disappearing Ships

For as long as man has traveled the great big blue, stories of disappearing ships have inspired many a nautical lore. From Krakens to the Bermuda Triangle, with no living being or ship remains around to tell the real story, new theories for these odd disappearances emerge every generation. Yet despite an abundance of theories these ships' ends remain shrouded in mystery.
Here are 5 stories of unexplained ship and crew disappearances.

Mary Celeste

Year of disappearance: 1872

Mary Celeste is known as 'the greatest maritime mystery of all time' as she didn't disappear, but her crew and passengers did. She was a merchant 'ghost' ship spotted by a Canadian brigantine on December 4, 1872, unmanned, sailing off the Azores in seaworthy condition.
Her finders determined she had already been at sea for a month and had over six months' worth of food and water on board. The mysterious part was that her cargo was virtually untouched and the personal belongings of passengers and crew were still in place, including valuables.
There are many explanations that attempt to explain what happened. Some have suggested the crew aboard Mary Celeste could have been murdered and thrown overboard by Ottoman pirates, who frequently sailed the area. However, British officials dismissed any suggestion of piracy or foul play as there were no signs of violence. One of the most prevalent and plausible theories to date suggests that the crew perished after embarking on a lifeboat, fearing the ship's cargo may have been about to explode as they were transporting barrels of alcohol.